| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain: delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered
them with a voice. And it was not a book to be read once
and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day.
Throughout the long twelve hundred miles there was never a page
that was void of interest, never one that you could leave
unread without loss, never one that you would want to skip,
thinking you could find higher enjoyment in some other thing.
There never was so wonderful a book written by man; never one
whose interest was so absorbing, so unflagging, so sparkingly
renewed with every re-perusal. The passenger who could not read it
was charmed with a peculiar sort of faint dimple on its surface
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: really became her, and with a few stitches she could manufacture a
toque out of the most elegant headgear. Nana, who had bought her
this very hat in order not to be ashamed of her when in her company
out of doors, was very near being vexed.
"Push it up, at any rate," she cried.
"No, thank you," replied the old lady with dignity. "It doesn't get
in my way; I can eat very comfortably as it is."
After the cutlets came cauliflowers and the remains of a cold
chicken. But at the arrival of each successive dish Nana made a
little face, hesitated, sniffed and left her plateful untouched.
She finished her lunch with the help of preserve.
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy: Sue and Jude were living in Aldbrickham, in precisely the same relations
that they had established between themselves when she left Shaston
to join him the year before. The proceedings in the law-courts had
reached their consciousness, but as a distant sound and an occasional
missive which they hardly understood.
They had met, as usual, to breakfast together in the little house
with Jude's name on it, that he had taken at fifteen pounds a year,
with three-pounds-ten extra for rates and taxes, and furnished
with his aunt's ancient and lumbering goods, which had cost him
about their full value to bring all the way from Marygreen.
Sue kept house, and managed everything.
Jude the Obscure |
